The following will describe some of the more interest feature of cattle anatomy:
The Stomach:
The stomachs of cattle are extremely unique, when compared to other mammals. This is because the stomachs' of cows have four separate compartments, each of which performs its own specific function. The four names of these compartments are: the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum and the abomasum.
The Four Compartments
Rumen
Is the largest of the four compartments.
This is where the majority of the digestion process takes
place. The rumen allows grazing animals to digest cellulose.
Reticulum
This compartment is the smallest of the four.
The role of the reticulum is to re-circulate undigested food in
the form of cude, back through the esophagus to be processed
again.
Omasum
When food as been processed enough it moves from
the reticulum to omasum. The omasum acts like a sort of pump,
which moves food from the reticulum to abomasum, for acid digestion.
Abomasum
This compartment is also known as the "true stomach"
as this is where acid digestion takes place. Its primary role is to
prepare proteins for further digestion and absorption in the small
intestine.
Ruminant Digestion:
The following is a video about the digestive systems of grazing animals such as cattle:
The Eyes:
Cows are red-green colour blind. This means that they cannot distinguish red from green. Thus, this disproves the myth that bulls (such as those that participate in bull fighting) are enraged by the colour red. Rather the bull is mostly likely being enraged by the quick movement of the red cape fabric.
Although cows are unable to distinguish red from green they do have two kinds of colour receptors in their retinas. Which enables them to see some colours, but like most animals they are unable to distinguish the primary colours from each other.
Table of Contents
The following will describe some of the more interest feature of cattle anatomy:
The Stomach:
The stomachs of cattle are extremely unique, when compared to other mammals. This is because the stomachs' of cows have four separate compartments, each of which performs its own specific function. The four names of these compartments are: the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum and the abomasum.This is where the majority of the digestion process takes
place. The rumen allows grazing animals to digest cellulose.
The role of the reticulum is to re-circulate undigested food in
the form of cude, back through the esophagus to be processed
again.
the reticulum to omasum. The omasum acts like a sort of pump,
which moves food from the reticulum to abomasum, for acid digestion.
as this is where acid digestion takes place. Its primary role is to
prepare proteins for further digestion and absorption in the small
intestine.
Ruminant Digestion:
The following is a video about the digestive systems of grazing animals such as cattle:The Eyes:
Cows are red-green colour blind. This means that they cannot distinguish red from green. Thus, this disproves the myth that bulls (such as those that participate in bull fighting) are enraged by the colour red. Rather the bull is mostly likely being enraged by the quick movement of the red cape fabric.Although cows are unable to distinguish red from green they do have two kinds of colour receptors in their retinas. Which enables them to see some colours, but like most animals they are unable to distinguish the primary colours from each other.
All of this information was gathered from the following pages:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle#Anatomy
http://sci.waikato.ac.nz/farm/content/animalstructure.html
http://www.thelantern.com/2.1345/a-window-to-the-world-of-a-cow-s-stomach-1.89665